I did Explode the Code with my kid who hated to read. Requiring him to read outside of school work was more headache than it was worth. I exposed him to quality literature by listening to unabridged books on CD during breakfast and in the sixth grade he discovered fantasy literature written for juveniles. It took him a couple of months to read the first novel, a couple of weeks to read the next, and about one week for the last. Having run out of literature for juveniles he picked up a copy of Ringworld, adult science fiction, and isn't having any problems with it in the seventh grade. Once they find something they really like, and there is no competing twaddle entertainment such as video games and tv, they will make astounding progress. The other problem I see with reading in the first grade is that their choices are limited to relatively bland readers. This improves in the second and third grade when their knowledge of phonics is enough for them to read bits and pieces of other things.

MPH 5 & 6 with my oldest. He's currently in 7th grade Interactive Science. My younger two are currently in MPH 3rd grade. I chose MPH over Interactive Science because of the supplements that came with that program. I recall ordering interactive science at the sixth grade level just to see what it was like and I couldn't tell a difference between quality or content, just that MPH seemed to have more questions for kids to answer. I also ordered the entire MPH science curriculum from 3-6th before it went out of print so I haven't examined the most recent edition. The disadvantage of the 7th grade science program is that there is no test bank and that answers to reviews are not available. I remedied the lack of tests by ordering "Excel in Science" a book of test papers for 7th grade science directly from Singapore at http://www.sgbox.com (very good service, I chose a cheap and long shipping option but it got here within two weeks rather than the 6 weeks that they estimated) Because of the quality of the science book I would not hesitate to order more science workbooks from them. I can't say the same for the English though. However, because Singapore uses a national curriculum you can use mix and match between the different science curricula without coming across too many we-were-never-taught-that kinds of questions. I guess what I'm saying is that if interactive science doesn't offer enough practice, you could always order workbooks or tests from a different curriculum.

Singapore 6 didn't result in as much facility in fractions, decimals, and factoring as I wanted, but the first few chapters of NEM emphasizes this. On the other hand, Our 60s algebra book teaches radicals and negatives from scratch. It also teaches the logic, set theory, and terms from scratch which are needed to understand the explanations, theorems, and proofs.

Come move next to me. What does she like about it? The proofs or the subject matter?

Is this the same Charles Murray that cowrote Bell Curve?

We use Singapore Science, comes with test bank, workbook, activity book. Most activities can be done with items around the house, but you if you skip a demonstration it's not a big deal. The best part of this program are the very indepth questions that lead to more conversation and more books from the library, if you want. If you don't want, you just go to the next section.

Whaleship Essex was awesome.:iagree: There is a juvenile version in print though. I was interested in Moby Dick after reading Essex but couldn't even stay awake through the movie. Very sad, shame on me. Other recommendations if you liked Essex are Pirate Of Exquiste Mind (I don't know why I put reading this one off for so long, it was good once I got started and it fleshed out the historical context of Magellan for me. Lots of adventure and action. Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny The Scents of Eden: A History of the Spice Trade. Definitely not the dry and boring history book I thought it would be, debauchery, treachery, etc of European traders in the Phillipines, Indonesia. (The Essex crew deliberately wanted to avoid going in this direction and you can find out the true nature of those rumors by reading Scents of Eden. To complete that historical period (maritime history of Pacific) I still need want to read Bounty: The True Story. It seems to be highly rated in Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Bounty-True-Story-Mutiny/dp/067003133X

Alex, I'll take forensic toxicology for $200 ;-)